Haunting skies, but no heavy weather.

Photo copyright Aji, 2021;
all rights reserved.

Haunting skies, but no heavy weather.

Well, except for the wind. There was too much of that yesterday. Now, the skies outside are white, but the clouds are too high to bring any snow down here to us. Supposedly that will change overnight, but they've been saying that for the last week, so we'll believe it when we see it.

My belated gifts arrived this morning: an absolutely gorgeous framed print of a pastel crane and some micaceous blackware for cooking and serving that I've coveted for a while now. These were items Wings chose (in addition to the belt he gave me Christmas Day) entirely on his own, and I'm deliriously happy with them. The blackware is made by Indigenous Colombian artisans of their local mica clay, and the prices are remarkably modest, but it has such a wonderful silky feel to it:  a small roasting pain, a small dutch oven-type covered pan/pot, four covered soup bowls, and a two-dish server for salt and pepper or condiments. The kind of things I'll use almost daily.

Speaking of things I'll use daily, I have a lot to do, to indulge in a masterpiece of understatement for a moment. I'm going to have to step back from a lot of online stuff starting in January to devote my increasingly limited time to more offline tasks. Because there's always the work, and lots of it. I have to re-organize the site, among other things, and we still have to make sales; January is our most costly month of the year, after all. As far as sales go, there are belated gifts, there are post-holiday birthday gifts, there will be engagements and weddings and graduations to coincide with the new year, and of course Valentine's Day is not that far off. There are five now four new items up here, and orders will ship this week, after Christmas is done. Other than that, I will likely still be scarce, because I lost most of last week to circumstances beyond my control, much of the same this week, and for the last week of 2021, I'm weeks behind the curve. It can't be 2022 yet; I'm still trying to manage the ravages of 2019.

Speaking of responsibilities to the future, our doctor's practice is a certified community health center, and they are currently in the middle of their year-end appeal (and since they are a qualifying non-profit, donations are tax-deductible). They treat a large cross-section of grossly-underserved local populations, and they need help now. Since this is the doctor who saved both our lives, we'll be giving again this year, no matter what. You should, too, and tell 'em we sent you. [And for those worried about it, it's tax-deductible.] You can do that here.

But the work just keeps piling up. So do the expenses. I'm currently waiting for delivery of the other beads and cabs that Wings needs for his next set, and for several other things in the pipeline. There was yesterday's small fortune to the doctor. And all of that means that I need to bring in enough to cover all that outlay, because none of this comes cheap.

Yeah, it always comes back to that: more sales. A lot more, because we have two years' worth of a shattered pandemic economy to make up for, by which I mean we need to gain more ground ourselves financially to be able to be sure of making it through the winter. I've posted a ton of Wings's new work lately, and there will be more in the days and weeks to come. If I could sell one of the big works, like one of the belts, maybe I could get us on the drill list for the well that is the only thing that's going to keep this land alive. But I've got way too much to do and too few hours and other resources to do it. 

Anyway, I have GOT to continue to make sales, so links are here:

• Sales here; 
• Testimonials here; 
• Amazon wishlist here (priorities are first and foremost, the ladders, because see above);
• Patreon here;
• Ko-fi here.

And if you've been contemplating a purchase? This would be a very, very good time to do it; I've got to cover all this staggering outlay somehow and get us through what's left of the year. And right now? I have no way to do it.  But there's lots of fabulous new work, so please share all of the links. 

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2021; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.